The Holiday

Star power can have a monumental effect upon a movie. Especially a bad one. The combination of bankable charm and magnetic screen presence has helped to lift many undeserving films out of the mediocrity they would have otherwise known.

This Christmas, the limited skills of writer/director Nancy Meyers are yet again pushed under the rug by an unbeatable selection of stars. In the festive romantic comedy The Holiday, Meyers has managed to assemble the kind of cast studio execs only dream about. While the talents of Mel Gibson managed to save Meyers' What Women Want, her last film, the self-indulgent comedy Something's Gotta Give was beyond even Jack Nicholson's help. Can star power prevail yet again or will poor craftsmanship truly shine through?

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the film follows two different characters living on different sides of the world.

Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is a movie-trailer maker living in LA who works too hard, takes life too seriously and hasn't cried since she was 15. When she finds out her boyfriend has cheated on her, she decides to take affirmative action.

Iris (Kate Winslet) is a journalist living in Surrey who cries too much, gets treated like a doormat and is still hopelessly in love with her cheating ex-boyfriend. When she discovers that he is getting married, she starts to crave an escape.

Through the magic of the internet (cinema's favorite new plot device), the two come upon a novel idea. They will house-swap for the holidays and have a man-free Christmas by themselves. Amanda finds her UK getaway to be less luxurious than she is used to while Iris is smitten with her idyllic US mansion. Their plans for solitary vacations are stalled however by some unexpected visitors.

In England, Amanda has a late-night intruder in the shape of Iris's drunken brother Graham (Jude Law) while Iris meets already attached film composer Miles (Jack Black). Their plans to spend the holidays alone are suddenly thrown into confusion as their transatlantic romances begin to blossom.

Your enjoyment of The Holiday will depend on a number of factors. Firstly it helps if you're a member of the fairer sex. We're stuck in the middle of chick flick territory here. Cue plenty of scenes of our heroines jumping about on their overstuffed beds, playing air guitar and eating lots of chocolate. Secondly, a good mood and a lack of cynicism is absolutely vital. The film seems oddly pleased with how great it is for much of the duration (this house is GREAT, you're so GREAT, my clothes are GREAT, this food is GREAT etc). If you start picking apart at the cliches and inanities you literally won't stop sighing.

Thirdly it also helps if you've never ever seen a romantic comedy before. Then this will most likely strike you a remarkably fresh and original movie. Lastly you have to be a

fan of at least one or preferably all of the four leads. You really do have to love watching Diaz's perma-grin or Law's smug stare to get the most out of this one.

It's doubtful that this would have ever been greenlit had it not been for the four leads. The script is depressingly short on witty lines or ingenious situations. There's a constant sense of wink-wink irony running throughout, with Amanda constantly having daydream trailers detailing her life and with Iris befriending an elderly neighbor who happens to be a legendary screenwriter. This means that the writers believe they can get away with pedaling out the same old formula, simply because their characters are more movie-literate.

The predictable blessing of the movie is in fact the starry cast who do put all of their efforts into making The Holiday as charming as possible. Kate Winslet is having a bumper year and although this is her at her most watered-down, mall-friendly self, she's still effortlessly engaging. Aiming for the Bridget Jones crowd, Winslet's journey from weak-willed wimp to independent woman will please the target audience.

Cameron Diaz is a little too self-possessed to ever illicit any empathy or for us to ever see her as anyone other than Cameron Diaz. She may be falling into that movie star curse where actors can no longer act without first projecting their own self. Jude Law is as glib as ever, but doesn't grate quite so much with his character possessing a little more depth than his usual womanizing roles. Finally Jack Black is enjoyably restrained, although his relationship with Kate Winslet is ridiculously underdeveloped.

Winslet spends many of her scenes with her screenwriting neighbor Eli Wallach, and it's these scenes which are oddly most reminiscent of the classic romantic comedies the movie so badly wants to be compared to. They have an easy, relaxed chemistry although their increased screen time together does mean that when the romance with Jack Black is finally introduced, it's too little, too late.

What's interesting about the movie for me was it's feigned feminist standpoint. Meyers obviously sees her film as an empowering film to women, with her lead actresses getting rid of the negative males in their lives and proudly spending Christmas alone. They start by swearing off all men, becoming independent women who don't need a man to make them feel complete. But, in a matter of days (hours actually in Diaz's case), they're bored of their own company and start sleeping with the first man they can find.

Eventually, the woman both discover that their lives really are incomplete without a man by their sides. Their careers and their self-belief are irrelevant. What's most frustrating is that the finale of the film never even shows us the moment Diaz and Winslet finally meet. We just cut to later on, when they've already befriended one

another. Isn't their connection ultimately the most important? Or shouldn't it be?

For a breezy romantic comedy, the film is offensively long at 138 minutes. On the big screen, it's stranded. A film such as this begs to be shown on TV or on a plane. It strikes me as laziness to rely so heavily on star power to keep your movie afloat. If this were written by a first-time screenwriter, it would have never been made. That's not to say I didn't salvage any simple pleasures from it. The cast are charming, the locations are well chosen and there are some witty moments amidst the saccharine. It's a glossy confection which will please the right kind of crowd and around the holiday period, it is an impossible film to dislike. But like any confectionary, as sweet as it is, it will rot your teeth in large doses.

Movie Grade: C+

Synopsis:

In writer/director Nancy Meyers‘ (Something’s Gotta Give, What Women Want) The Holiday, two women on opposite sides of the globe, Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) and Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) find themselves in a similar predicament. Desperate for a change of scenery, the two women meet on the internet and swap houses for the Christmas holiday discovering that a change of address really can change your life.